Customising you Screen Settings and Magnification Control
How can you magnify the computer screen?
A computer screen offers a display medium with the potential to alter the colour, contrast and brightness to suit individual preferences. It also offers extensive control over presentation of text size, style and colour. This enables the user to select the most comfortable colour background, text colour and typeface.
The operating system of the computer also provides other opportunities for customisation.The mouse pointer, for example, can sometimes be difficult to see for someone with sight problems. There are however features within the operating system of a computer which enables the user to slow down the pointer, or add trails to its movement. If, after using the features that are available within the operating system the text on the screen still isn't accessible for the user, specialist software is available to enlarge the text, menus and icons on the screen.,
Customising the operating system
There are several screen enhancement features integrated within Windows. These can be altered to improve visibility for partially sighted people. These features include pre-set high contrast colour schemes, larger standard fonts, modifying the screen resolution and improvements to the visibility of the mouse pointer and cursors. Some of these options can be modified using the control panel on your computer.
It is important to bear in mind that although some of these features for customising your screen may be helpful, they do not offer the same level of access as a magnification software package. There are still areas where font size and colour are fixed and any preferences will have no effect.
Enhancing the cursor
The mouse pointer can often be difficult to see, which provides additional difficulties. There are however utilities available which can customise the mouse pointer to the users preference.
Options may include:
Screen magnification software
Because screen magnification software increases the size of the image displayed on the screen, only a portion of the original screen image can be seen at one time. Normally, the screen magnification will automatically follow the focus of attention, so that the area around the cursor, mouse pointer or highlighted menu item is magnified. Moving the magnified window in order to view other parts of the original screen image is done by using the mouse. Some screen magnification programs now provide supportive speech output as well. The contents of Word documents, menu items and icons are usually spoken using the computer’s sound.
Other features that may be available in a magnification package include:
Please note that not all of these features may be available in the low cost products that are available on the market.
Incompatibilities can occur between a magnification system and a computer system. For example, the magnification system may be incompatible with your ‘graphics adaptor’ / video card, may not work with the computer’s operating system software, or may not work at the desired screen resolution. It is therefore important to check this with the supplier of the magnification system.
Why choose a large monitor?
A large monitor can be helpful for someone who wants to increase the size of the text on the screen to a fairly low level of magnification and also for those users of screen magnification software. A 17 inch monitor is increasingly becoming a standard size to purchase with a computer as the increased area on the screen provides more space for having multiple application windows open. Someone with a sight problem often finds a 17 inch, 19 inch, 21 inch and above helpful when using screen magnification software as enlarging the text on the computer screen does restrict the amount of viewable area on the screen. By using a larger monitor in conjunction with screen magnification, the viewable area on the screen is effectively increased.
Monitors use different types of technology including Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and Cathode Ray Tube (CRT).
LCD monitors have less flicker compared with conventional monitors. This can be valuable for some partially sighted people if they find flicker on a conventional monitor unacceptable. LCD screens for use with desktop computers are more expensive than conventional monitors. TFT Flat screens usually give a larger viewing area and suffer less from reflection than curved screens.
Conventional computer monitors use CRT technology similar to televisions. Conventional screens are heavy and take up more space than LCD monitors.
Monitors vary vastly in price depending on their size and if they are a CRT or LCD monitor. CRT monitors up to 19 inches are available for less than £100 and 19 inch TFT screens are available from about £300 from high street retailers.